Eligible Greeks: Tycoon's Revenge: Proud Greek, Ruthless Revenge / The Power of the Legendary Greek / The Greek Millionaire's Mistress

‘Very nice,’ he drawled, watching in fascination as twin spots of colour flared on her pale cheeks. Her ability to blush at will was a useful trick in her armoury, as was her air of innocence, he reminded himself impatiently. But he could not prevent himself from reaching out and tracing the fragile line of her collarbone. Her skin felt like satin beneath his fingertips, and her long pale amber hair fell in a curtain of silk around her shoulders. He brushed it aside to reveal the slender column of her throat, then lowered his mouth to the pulse beating frenetically at its base. She smelled divine, her light floral perfume tantalising his senses and driving every thought from his head other than his burning need to possess her.

Tahlia held her breath when Thanos trailed his lips along her jaw in a feather-light caress that sent a tremor through her. Was he going to make love to her right now? Remove her bra and knickers and stroke his strong hands over her naked body before tugging her down onto the sofa? His mouth was tantalisingly close, and the gleam in his eyes filled her with apprehension—and at the same time a wild and uncontrollable excitement. There was no point in kidding herself; she wanted him to kiss her. She snatched a frantic little breath as he slowly lowered his head.

He claimed her mouth in a kiss of determined intent, forcing her lips apart and thrusting his tongue between them to explore her with erotic thoroughness. To her shame, Tahlia was lost from the first touch; he was so big and powerful, and she knew that if she fought him she would lose. Besides, she did not want to fight him, she acknowledged with searing honesty. Heat was coursing through her veins, and she felt boneless and supremely conscious of the melting warmth pooling between her thighs.

He increased the pressure of his mouth and slid one hand into her hair, while the other roamed up and down her body, skimmed her hips and slender waist, then curled around one breast. The brush of his thumb pad over her nipple caused it to harden beneath her sheer lace bra.

She had not expected the firestorm of emotions that raged through her. Her whole body seemed to be burning up, and the throbbing hardness of Thanos’s arousal thrusting into her pelvis turned the fire into a raging inferno. She slid her hands over his chest, feeling the heat of his body through his silk shirt, and suddenly it was not enough. She wanted to feel his bare flesh beneath her fingertips. Fingers shaking slightly, she began to unfasten his buttons, revealing olive-gold skin covered with fine dark hairs, but before she had reached halfway down his abdomen he lifted his head, and his hands closed over hers in a vice like grip.

‘Your eagerness to share my bed is flattering,’ he drawled, watching dispassionately as colour surged into Tahlia’s cheeks. ‘But we have an early start in the morning, and I prefer to wait and enjoy you at my leisure.’

He had known from the moment he had taken her in his arms that one night would not be enough to pacify the ravenous beast that had taken charge of his body, Thanos acknowledged. His desire for her was beyond anything he had experienced with any other woman, and he would not be satisfied with a hurried sex session—a few snatched hours of pleasure before he left for an urgent business meeting tomorrow. For reasons he could not fathom Tahlia was a drug in his veins, and he intended to make her his mistress for as long as it took to slake his hunger for her.

‘We have an early start?’Tahlia mumbled, so excruciatingly embarrassed by her ardent response to him and his cool rejection of her that she wanted to crawl away and die. ‘I don’t understand.’ Had he changed his mind about wanting her? Sick fear surged through her. Had he ordered her to take off her dress because it had amused him to tease her before he revealed that he would not buy Reynolds Gems?

‘It’s quite simple,’ he told her, picking up her dress and handing it to her. His harsh, ‘Cover yourself,’ brought another flare of scorching colour to her cheeks. ‘I’m flying to the Greek island of Mykonos to visit my new hotel first thing in the morning—and you’re coming with me. I shall require your services for one month,’ he continued smoothly, ignoring Tahlia’s gasp of shock. ‘That should satisfy my more basic urges. I’ve no doubt I’ll have grown bored of you after you’ve shared my bed for a few weeks.’

‘I’m not going anywhere with you and—and certainly not for a month,’ Tahlia stammered when she finally found her voice. She wobbled precariously on her high heels as she stepped into her dress and tugged it up over her hips, with scant regard for the fragile material. She thrust her arms through the straps, gasping when Thanos spun her round and slid the zip up the length of her spine.

He swung her back to face him and cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his sardonic gaze. ‘You are exceptionally lovely, Tahlia, but even you must admit that a six-figure sum for one night of sex with you would be an extravagance—even for a billionaire.’

She blanched at the flare of contempt in his eyes, and accepted that she had taken leave of her sanity when she had agreed to sell herself to him. ‘I have responsibilities here—commitments, a job…’Although she would not have one for much longer if Thanos bought out Reynolds Gems, she acknowledged dismally. The future was frighteningly uncertain. ‘I can’t spend a month in Greece with you,’ she said dully. ‘It’s impossible.’

Thanos shrugged and withdrew his mobile phone from his trouser pocket. ‘That’s a pity, because I was just about to call Steven Holt and instruct him to proceed with buying Reynolds Gems. But if you’ve changed your mind I’ll tell him not to go ahead.’

She was halfway across the room, heading for the door. But his words stopped her in her tracks. She turned slowly back to face him, her brain whirling. ‘You can’t phone him now—it’s almost midnight,’ she pointed out.

‘I can do whatever I like,’ he informed her, with a supreme arrogance that took her breath away. ‘I did not make my fortune by working nine till five. My employees know that I expect them to be available whenever I need them.’

Presumably he would have the same expectation of her if she went to Greece with him? A tremor ran down Tahlia’s spine at the thought. She could carry on walking out of the door and out of Thanos’s life—and all her instincts were screaming at her that she should walk away—but he was offering her the chance to save Carlton House from repossession, the voice in her head argued. The price was high. Could she survive a month as Thanos’s mistress? What was one month compared to the rest of her parents’ lives?

She snatched a breath and squared her shoulders as she met his hooded gaze. ‘I want written assurance that you will honour our deal. I’m afraid I don’t trust your word.’

Anger surged through Thanos at her disdainful tone, but he refrained from pointing out that she was not in a position to demand anything. ‘My legal team will take care of it,’ he told her dismissively. ‘Would you like your duties to be listed—how many times a night I will expect you to pleasure me, perhaps a description of positions…?’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Tahlia said sharply, conscious that her face was burning hotter than a furnace. ‘I just want to be sure my father’s financial worries will be over.’

‘How very altruistic of you,’ he murmured sardonically.

She frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

He crossed to the door and held it open. ‘Don’t waste your breath trying to convince me that your desire to save Reynolds Gems from bankruptcy is to help your father. You have expensive tastes,’ he drawled, sliding his finger over the diamanté strap of her dress and then trailing an insolent path down to her cleavage. ‘Your sole interest is in ensuring your own financial security—isn’t it, Tahlia?’ He paused, his eyes narrowing as he glimpsed the sudden shimmer of her tears, and for a second something tugged at his insides at the knowledge that he had hurt her. He dismissed the thought ruthlessly. She deserved to be hurt—just as she had hurt Melina. ‘I’ll drive you home,’ he said brusquely, standing aside for her to precede him out of his suite. ‘You need to pack.’

There was simply no point in arguing with him, Tahlia accepted miserably as she followed him into the lift. Thanos had judged her, and he was so pig-headed that nothing she did or said would change his opinion of her. But she had glimpsed the flare of feral hunger in his eyes before his lashes swept down and hid his expression. He desired her, and he had agreed to buy Reynolds Gems in order to have her in his bed for one month. She could only pray that she would not spend the rest of her life regretting her decision to become his mistress.

After giving Thanos stilted directions to her flat Tahlia lapsed into silence, and he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

‘I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning,’ he told her as he parked outside her flat. ‘Don’t keep me waiting. And Tahlia?’ he called, when she flung open the car door and hurried up her front path. ‘Remember the reason why you’re accompanying me on this trip and pack accordingly, won’t you? I’m already fantasising about seeing you in sexy underwear like the tantalising wisps of lace you’re wearing tonight.’

Face flaming, she bit back a retort which would have singed his ears and stepped into her flat, slamming the front door behind her and sagging against it. What had she done? she thought despairingly, burying her face in her hands as the enormity of the deal she had struck with Thanos sunk in. She had saved her parents from the devastation of losing their home, she reminded herself grimly. And with that thought in mind she dug out a suitcase from the cupboard under the stairs, pulled open her wardrobe and began to sort through its meagre contents for outfits suitable to take to Greece.

‘Are you ready?’ Thanos demanded curtly, when she opened the door to him at one minute past eight the following morning.

‘Almost,’ she muttered, annoyed that her heart immediately began to race at the sight of him, in a lightweight stonecoloured jacket and trousers, teamed with a cream shirt which was open at the throat so that she could see a tantalising V of bronzed skin. His black hair gleamed like jet in the early morning sunshine, and his beautifully sculpted features and sensual mouth caused a peculiar dragging sensation in the pit of Tahlia’s stomach. ‘Unfortunately Charlie is proving rather stubborn to persuade out of my bedroom.’

Black eyebrows winged skywards. ‘Spare me the details of your tangled love-life,’ he drawled, in the sardonic tone she detested.

‘Charlie is my cat,’ Tahlia informed him tightly. ‘He’s actually the laziest cat on the planet, and spends most of his time sleeping on my bed.’ She noted Thanos’s impatient frown and chewed on her bottom lip. ‘You’ll have to help me get him into the cat-carrier.’

She disappeared through a door and Thanos followed, glancing curiously around her bedroom. He had expected something more…seductive, he mused. The soft lemon walls, pale carpet and floral curtains and bedspread were fresh and pretty, but he could not imagine her entertaining a stream of lovers here.

A hissing sound like a kettle coming to the boil came from under the dresser, and he stared in surprise at the fat ginger cat whose yellow eyes were fixed menacingly on him. Tahlia was on her knees, dangling a rubber toy in front of the cat to tempt it into the carrier.

‘Come on, Charlie,’ she crooned. ‘Come and play.’ The hissing grew louder, and the cat suddenly sprang, hooking its claws in Tahlia’s hand. ‘Quick—grab him!’ she yelled.

‘You must be joking.’Instead Thanos manoeuvred the carrier over the cat, and after a brief tussle Tahlia managed to deposit the ball of orange fur inside and hastily secured the door. Blood was running down her hand and the cat was still spitting furiously. ‘Theos, ’ he muttered. ‘What breed is it—a wild cat?’

‘He’s just a bit sensitive,’ Tahlia told him seriously. ‘I got him from the cat rescue centre, and I think he was badly treated by his previous owners. He’s a sweetie, really.’

‘I’ll take your word for it. You’d better put some antiseptic on that scratch.’ Thanos frowned. Giving a home to a stray cat with homicidal tendencies did not fit in with his image of Tahlia, he brooded irritably. He picked up her suitcase and cast another look around her room, pausing at the photograph on the bedside table. ‘Is this your brother?’ he asked curiously, as he studied the picture of Tahlia and a tall man with bright red hair.

‘No, I don’t have any siblings.’ She slipped on her jacket and flicked her hair back from her face. ‘That’s Michael. We met on my first day at university, when he told me that redheads should always stick together.’ She smiled softly at the memory. ‘Michael was studying to be a vet, but he died of meningitis a few months before he graduated.’

Thanos heard the sudden huskiness in her voice. ‘Was he your boyfriend?’ he queried abruptly, irritated with himself for his curiosity. Tahlia’s personal life had nothing to do with him.

She shrugged. ‘We’d been dating for a few months.’ Over the years she had come to terms with losing Michael, but only her closest friends knew how devastated she had been by his death. She had no intention of confiding in Thanos. She picked up the cat-carrier and glanced at him. ‘I’m ready to leave now.’

Tahlia’s tone warned Thanos that she did not want to continue the conversation, and he was suddenly impatient to leave. He did not want to hear that she had suffered a tragedy in her past. For the past six months he had envisaged her as a cold-hearted bitch, and he refused to contemplate any possibility that he might have been wrong.

‘I hope you’re not planning to try and smuggle that cat through Customs?’he said tersely as they walked out to the car.

‘Of course not. Hobson is going to look after him. He used to be my parents’ butler, but he’s semi-retired now, and lives in an annexe of Carlton House,’Tahlia explained. ‘We’ll have to take Charlie over to him.’

‘Is the house on the way to Gatwick?’

‘The opposite direction, I’m afraid. But I can’t leave Charlie to fend for himself. I guess it’s a case of love me, love my cat,’ she quipped, as Thanos deposited the cat carrier on the back seat and opened the front passenger door for her.

‘Hell will freeze over before I do either,’Thanos said violently.

He fired the ignition and pulled away from the kerb, but his scathing comment hung in the air between them, and Tahlia quickly turned her head and stared out of the window, wondering why her eyes were stinging with stupid tears. Thanos could not make it plainer that he hated her, but she was shocked at how much his contempt hurt.

She said nothing more, apart from giving him directions to Carlton House, and only glanced at him when he drove through the gates and gave a low whistle.

‘I see why your parents are so keen to hang on to the house,’ he said dryly, as he stared up at the ivy-covered walls and the three storeys of mullioned windows glinting in the sunlight. ‘It’s spectacular.’

‘For many generations it was passed down to the oldest son of the family, but my mother was an only child so she inherited it,’ Tahlia explained. ‘It’s a Grade I listed building, and to be honest the cost of its upkeep is a nightmare. My parents do their best to maintain it, even though it’s a drain on their resources, and Mum is very proud of her heritage. She loves Carlton House. It would break her heart to leave it—’

She broke off, blushing at the knowledge that she had agreed to become Thanos’s mistress to keep Carlton House safe. The front door of the house suddenly swung open, and an elderly, impeccably dressed man walked slowly down the front steps.